Chinese athletics team eyes more than two golds at Tokyo Olympics

Updated 2017-12-06 17:01:57Xinhua

The Chinese Athletics Association (CAA) has unveiled an ambitious plan in preparation for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, aiming to participate in all the 48 events and earn more than two gold medals.

"We want to do better in Tokyo compared to our results at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio in terms of gold medals, total medals, top eight finishers, number of events we competed in as well as the number of athletes we sent," said Yu Hongchen, vice president of the CAA, during the 2017 Chinese Athletics National Conference which opened here on Wednesday.

China sent a total of 60 athletes to compete in 23 out of the 47 athletics events at the Rio Olympics last year. After winning two gold, two silver and two bronze medals, China followed the United States, Jamaica and Kenya to take the fourth place in the medal tally, which marked the best performance in the country's Olympic history.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced in June that the 4x400m mixed relay would be added to 2020 Tokyo Games to become the 48th athletics Olympic event.

"We traditionally did well in race walk and throwing events. But in order to live up to our medal expectations for the Tokyo Games, we need to explore more potential from other events like men's jumping events," Yu said.

China won two gold, three silver and two bronze medals at the 2017 World Championships in London and all the seven medals came from women's race walk and throwing events.

The CAA has recently signed nine foreign coaches to help guide the national team, six of which will be working in sprinting, long distance and jumping events.

"It will be a huge endeavor to achieve our goal. We know we will be facing great challenges in the coming years. But we have great confidence and determination as we carry out our plan," Yu added.